Many digital camcorders can record video films on a tape and photo pictures (or E-video clips) on a media-card. The image contents taken in videos and photos are usually very correlated and coherent. For example, video and photos might be related in the following aspects: taken in the same time; taken at the same place; shot to same objects (persons); shot in a similar scene; taken during the same event; taken under the same mood or feeling; photo and video are content-compensated; photos represent the highlight still contents of a video etc. Many kinds of new camcorders can even record e-video clips on a media card. Such e-video clips represent the highlight of a video. E-video clip is very a kind of video thumbnail.
However, the video films on the tape and the photos (or E-video clips) on the media-card are treated separately by editing and archiving. Such a procedure is illustrated in FIG. 1. A digital camcorder 100 is used for recording 101 a video sequence on a camcorder mini-tape 102. At a later time the video film is played back and edited 103 using a video recorder and a television set 104 or a personal computer 105. Alternatively, the camcorder 100 may record 106 a photo on a camcorder media-card 107. After recording the photo may be viewed and edited 108 by using a personal computer 105.
While recording, no connection (or relation) is defined for the recording contents between video and photo (or e-video clip). Today, editing and customizing the relation between recordings on the tape and the media card requires an editing process separate from the act of recording itself, and this process is also performed on an equipment different from the recording equipment. However, it is impossible for a camera-man while recording to make use of still pictures (or e-video clips) in a media-card in order to set up more attractive features for the video contents on a tape.